“I I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
“...I live by the faith of the Son of God…”
I’m going to ask you to bear with me on this reflection, which may have multiple postings. I beg your forbearance because this statement, “I live by the faith of the Son of God,” has been burned into my soul as with a branding iron, and yet I realize that not everyone will agree with it. Whether you agree with it now, or will agree with it later, or in terms of this verse will never agree with it - the Scriptures teach its reality and if this passage in Galatians does not support the statement we can be assured that the Bible as a whole does.
The central question is, “How do we live?” Or, “By whose life do we live?” Another question is whether our faith is centered on ourselves and our actions or centered on Christ and His actions.
To the best of my knowledge the only English translation that reads “by the faith of the Son of God” is the King James Version. Every other translation I’ve consulted reads “by faith in the Son of God.” In the latter we are exercising our faith and the Son of God is the object of our faith; in the former the faith of the Son of God is how we are living - the emphasis is Christ living in us and through us. In the latter the focus is what we are doing, in the former it is what Christ is doing.
How do we live? By whose life do we live?
For the reader who is asking, “Isn’t this just a matter of properly translating from Greek?” The basic answer is “no”. There are at least two lines of thought on the translation, perhaps more. The Greek words can be translated as an “objective genitive” or as a “subjective genitive”. “By faith in” is objective - “faith” has an object (the Son of God). “By the faith of” is subjective - here the Son of God is the acting subject of “the faith”. Now do you see why I asked you to bear with me?
What is one to do? One is to look at the context.
Paul is essentially saying throughout Galatians, including in our immediate context, “Not I but Christ.” As Richard B. Hayes puts it, “In Gal. 2:20 Paul is provocatively denying his own role as the acting “subject” of his own life and claiming that he has been supplanted in this capacity by Christ: “the faith of the Son of God” is now the governing power in Paul’s existence...The whole context portrays Christ as the active agent and Paul as the instrument through which and/or for whom Christ’s activity comes to expression.” [The Faith of Jesus Christ - The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1 - 4:11 Second Edition, by Richard B. Hays, pages 154, 155. Hayes is professor of NT at Duke Divinity School].
Hayes quotes British theologian M.D. Hooker in his introduction, “Paul presents redemption in Christ as a radical restructuring of human nature: it is in effect a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Christ became what we are in order that we might become what he is.” Hooker goes on to write that the faith of Jesus Christ should be understood as “a concentric expression, which begins, always, from the faith of Christ himself, but which includes, necessarily, the answering faith of believers, who claim that faith as their own.”
How do we live? By whose life does the Christian live? In John 15:1 - 11 Jesus is clear that “apart from Me you can do nothing.” As we abide in the Vine we live, we live by His life, we live by His faith.
The phrase and image of “in Christ” permeates the New Testament, as does the image of Christ in us, His people. Our brethren in Eastern Orthodoxy are comfortable with this Incarnational perspective while many of us in the West stumble over it. Some of us in the West accuse those who embrace this perspective of pietism, using the word sadly as a pejorative...which I have never understood. Thankfully most all Christian traditions, Protestant and Roman Catholic, and of course the East, have had those who have preserved this testimony. But of course this is more than a “perspective”, it is (or should be) a way of life, Jesus Christ should be living in us and through us - after all, the Trinity has come to live within us (John Chapters 13 - 17).
We preach the new birth one minute and deny it the next, we teach that we are new creations at 11:10 on Sunday and then at 11:35 deny it, preaching and teaching and acting as if the new birth never happened with a focus on who we were rather than who we are in Jesus Christ. Having begun in the Spirit we seek perfection by the flesh (Galatians 3:3). We teach that our minds are to be renewed (Romans 12:1-2) and then proceed to ignore Romans 5:12 - 8:39 and Galatians 2:20. Why can we not see the inherent contradiction in preaching the new birth one minute and then denying the reality of the life of Christ in us the next? What are we afraid of?
The message of Galatians 2:20 is “Not I but Christ” and that context strongly suggests that the best translation is “by the faith of the Son of God”.
I cannot live the Christian life...and with all respect, neither can you...but Jesus Christ can and will live it in us and through us...Christ is our Life (Colossians 3:4).
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